He uses a large-format view camera — just a lens, a bellows and a ground focusing glass — that exposes individual sheets of 4-by-5-inch film; the setup for his long-exposure shots often takes hours. He describes his work as an attempt “to convey the significance of places and processes, once marvels of their time, that have now fallen into obsolescence” and yet remain vital to the few people left who employ these methods and purchase these goods. Payne has a background in architecture, to which he attributes his interest in “how things are purposefully designed and constructed, and how they work.” In 2010, he came across a yarn mill in Maine and was transfixed by the way it seemed to exist both in the past and the present; it became the first textile mill he photographed.